Colten Care homes have hosted a series of Macmillan Coffee Mornings with an added Willy Wonka-style twist.
Residents, staff and visitors raising a mug at the annual charity get togethers were served freshly prepared homemade cakes and pastries in the traditional way.

But at each of Colten Care’s 21 homes, chefs baked one of the tasty treats as a ‘Golden Cup Cake’, containing a hidden layer of edible gold leaf through the middle only to be revealed when the cake was bitten into.

The lucky recipient won a bottle of bubbly, chocolates and a donation to Macmillan on their behalf.
“I couldn’t quite believe it was the golden one,” said a smiling Pamela Kately, the winner at Canford Chase in Poole.
More than 100 cup cakes were baked by Chef Izzy Turczyn-Kuzma at The Aldbury in Poole, with housekeeping colleague Michael Sheppard receiving the golden prize.

And at Brook View in West Moors, the cup cake winner was visitor Hannah Kirby who had only just arrived to visit her grandfather Harry.

Moments after making her coffee morning donation along with partner Leigh, Hannah bit into the cake and saw the gold, prompting cheers all round.

Hannah, who was then presented with her bottle of bubbly, said: “I didn’t realise what it was at first and wondered what I had found in the middle. It was a lovely surprise.”

As well as the Golden Cup Cake search, this year’s coffee mornings at Colten Care featured plenty of conversation and other fun. There were mufti days for staff, guess-the-weight-of-the-cake games, cake sales, singalongs and dances.

At The Aldbury, two musicians from the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, violinist Jennifer Curiel and pianist and French horn player Kevin Pritchard, performed popular classical pieces and childhood songs such as Run Rabbit Run. Among the residents singing and dancing along were Mary Cooper, Elizabeth Kay and Win Clowerly.

Fellow resident at The Aldbury, Abdu ‘Hobi’ Sabih, did his bit to collect donations. He helped Companion Melissa Siat Caparros to push the fundraising cake trolley around the home, chatting with residents, staff and visitors.
Elaine Farrer, Colten Care’s Chief Operating Officer, said: “We always support the Macmillan Coffee Morning with all 21 of our homes taking part. It’s a fantastic community initiative. We invite families, friends and local contacts to come and join us for a coffee social and enjoy the fun. The prospect of winning a golden cupcake adds even more interest.”
The first Macmillan Coffee Morning took place in 1990 with the simple idea of encouraging people to donate the cost of their cuppa to Macmillan Cancer Support to help the charity’s work for people with cancer. Since then, more than £300 million has been raised.

According to Macmillan, one in two of us will face cancer. The charity’s aim is to help everyone with cancer to live life as fully as they can.

For more information and to donate, visit www.macmillan.org.uk.

Organisers of a charity that provides gifts of chocolate to less fortunate children at Christmas have thanked residents at five of our homes for their support
The Chocolate Elf praised the efforts of residents, staff and families at Woodpeckers in Brockenhurst, Kingfishers in New Milton and the Lymington homes Belmore Lodge, Linden House and Court Lodge for collecting more than 100 selection boxes and advent calendars.

The voluntary group distributes donations to children across Hampshire through contacts in local councils, children’s homes, charities, youth services, hospices and women’s refuges.
Representative Pete Orme, who visited Woodpeckers to pick up the gifts gathered by Colten Care, said: “Thank you so much to the staff, residents and families. Every single donation is truly going to transform a child’s day and, in some instances, their whole Christmas.”
[caption id="attachment_4541" align="alignnone" width="1024"] SWEET SURPRISE. At Woodpeckers in Brockenhurst with some of the chocolate donations are, from left, Colten Care Customer Advisors Tracy Baker, Tracy McCallum and Deborah Davies, and Chocolate Elf charity representative Pete Orme.[/caption]

Altogether, the five homes gathered 45 selection boxes, 56 advent calendars and other donations of chocolate coins, tubs and bars to help with the charity’s work.
Woodpeckers resident Jean Slater said: “How wonderful it was to help with this. Children will always eat chocolate.”

Residents have filled over 100 shoeboxes with gifts for disadvantaged babies and children in Ukraine and Romania this Christmas.
The boxes, which have been packed with soft toys, stationery, warm gloves and mittens, books and toiletries, were handed over to the Rotary Club of Boscombe & Southbourne, which is collecting shoeboxes across the district for distribution to Eastern Europe next month (November).
Colten Care’s Senior Companionship Team Leader Donia O’Connor said: “We are very proud at Colten Care to have a long-standing relationship with the Rotary and this wonderful scheme.

“For me personally it’s always deeply inspiring to stand amongst all the festive shoeboxes that our residents have lovingly packed, knowing they will soon be opened by children who have so little.”

Homes which provided shoeboxes this year were Avon Cliff in Bournemouth, Fernhill in Longham, Brook View and Amberwood House in Ferndown, Kingfishers in New Milton, Linden House, Belmore Lodge and Court Lodge in Lymington, Whitecliffe House in Blandford Forum, Abbey View in Sherborne, Newstone House in Sturminster Newton, St Catherines View and Abbotts View in Winchester and Canford Chase, The Aldbury and Bourne View in Poole.

Boscombe & Southbourne Rotarians David Shires, Leon Warner and Neal Curtis collected all the boxes from Bourne View in Poole.

David Shires, who is President of the branch said: “We are deeply grateful for Colten Care’s continuing commitment and generosity to the Rotary Shoebox Scheme.
“These, along with thousands of other shoeboxes collected across the district will be going out to Eastern Europe in mid-November, for distribution to babies and children whose difficult lives will be noticeably brightened by the gift.”
Peter Prior and Pam Pamphilon, residents at Bourne View said they were proud to be part of the effort.
Peter said: “I’ve always loved Christmas, especially as a child and it’s lovely to know we will be spreading a little joy to children who really need it.”

Pam agreed: “I have two daughters, two grandchildren and three great grandchildren and Christmas is a magical time for us all. It’s very important we do all we can to help children who are living elsewhere in the world under desperate conditions.”

Zoe Rose, Companionship Team Leader at Bourne View added: “We love being the central point to which all the Colten Care shoeboxes come. Seeing them all here, prepared with such love and care is wonderful and we feel privileged to be part of it all.”